Aincrad Survivors Guild
by Leonhart-Strife
Summary: Celestia doesn't like being forced to play a virtual game to settle a 'who's better' bet, but since she's never been allowed to play video games in the first place she doesn't really put up a fight, at least until she finds out that if her avatar dies then so will she. Luckily she has her best friend and seerer, Luna and maybe a new love interest. Fem!Harry
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online nor do I own Harry Potter.

Warnings: Yes I did change a couple things that had to do with SAO. Mainly because I didn't really have any idea about SAO's actual game system as in leveling up, rewards, quests. That type of thing pretty much took a seat on the back burner when it came time to choose between the plot and the games leveling system, at least it did in canon episodes. So don't get pissed off if something doesn't make sense or follow the canon plotline. This is fanfiction people. If something doesn't make sense or we don't like it then we change it. SAO and Harry Potter Crossover. Fem!Harry Potter (Tia(Celestia)). Anyway I try to explain the leveling system and the actual game itself as much as I can. Though I do tend to avoid the actual speeches in the first episode of SAO, I do imply them or mention them.

Second Warning: Just a heads up for those of you that like Asuna, I don't know yet if I intend to make her a bitch or if I intend to bash her horribly. I don't really like her character but that has more to do with the fact that she doesn't really treat Kirito the way I think a girlfriend or even a friend should be treated. For one, you don't threaten people you consider friends, nor do you use violence against them for minor things like say having an opinion different than your own. Also in the episode where Kirito askes to stay with Asuna for the night and she assumes that means they're going to sleep together. I agree that it would be an embarrassing situation but that does not mean you hit someone for your own assumptions. Sorry for that little rant but physical violence has no place in relationships that go beyond friendship. I completely disliked her after that episode and sorely wished that Sachi had not died. I'm not saying that women need to be meek and subservant to men, I'm a woman myself you'll never catch me saying that, but I also believe that the moment a woman raises her hand instead of her voice is the moment she needs to call that relationship quits. If you love someone you never want to hurt them, especially for your own mistakes. Again sorry for the rant Asuna just brings that side of me out.

P.S. Yes that does mean I'm planning to set Fem!Harry(Tia (Celestia)) up with Kirito. Whether any of the other girls- Lisbeth, Silica, or Sachi- get to be a part of that relationship I don't really know. Silica, I might keep her on as a sister. Lisbeth, actually besides Sachi, she would've been a decent girlfriend for Kirito . She seemed capable of getting her point across without resorting to violence (Sorry that's a major issue for me). And then there's Sachi, to kill or not to kill? That is the question. No really that's the question. Tell me what you think on that. On top of that there's the HP female characters. Tell me who you think would be good to pair with Tia X Kirito. Doesn't even have to be a permanent thing. Seriously they're both 15 they're suppose to be experimenting at that age. Of course cheating is not an option. Nothing destroys somebody more than finding out your lover has been cheating on you. That whole thing is going to be consensual and open. Atleast until they realize that what they have actually is love and not just hormonal teenage lust.

Anyway give me your opinions (constructive critizism only) and I'll see what I can do to improve.

Quest ideas are welcome! I'm planning for a long story. I was rather disappointed with the fact that they condensed two years worth of what could've been an amazingly indepth plotline into what-13 episodes?! 2 YEARS!? Seriously not cool. Worse I'm a bit of a romantic so to find out that the story was practically over after only 2wks of romance in the entire two years trapped there, even if it was with Asuna. BY the way suicide?! Not the answer. Also that's a little too clingy for me. I can understand getting killed after tragically watching the person you love die, I can also understand dieing in the place of someone you love, but telling someone that you would kill yourself if they ever left you is going too far and in my opinion that does not scream love to me, that screams desperate, obsessive and just a little bit controlling.

No Hermione will not be involved romantically or sexually with Tia and Kirito. Her better-than-thou personality in the books pissed me off. I'm not talking about her book smarts, I can handle someone being more intelligent than the main character, it's when she starts acting like she's the only one with a brain that pisses me off. Like with the firebolt in third year- instead of sitting down and talking about her concerns she went to a teacher who immediately confiscated it and then she acted all hurt when they gave her the silent treament, I would've given her the silent treatment and then never share another secret with her again. Don't even get me started about the Potions book in sixth year. As a person she's good, but as a friend not so much, best keep that friendship distant and without secrets. Also the way she treated Luna, one of my favorite characters, really irritated me. Apparently nobody is allowed to believe in different things. Or have an opinion.

Don't even get me started about Ron Weasley. His sister's not much better. Seriously I'm not sure how that couple happened. In seven books, she only really appeared in like 2 and a half (2,6,7). Truthfully 2 year shouldn't even be mentioned because he avoided her like the plague.

I might go with Luna though, she's a little out there but she'll always make you think about things at a different angle and sometimes that makes all the difference.

Anyway here's the disclaimer for the entire story. Do not expect me to repeat the same line over and over again.

Let me know if you think I should bother continuing this.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Celestia Potter was irritated, but not really surprised when the Ministry managed to pass a law that forced the heirs and heiress' of old families, and those chosen randomly by the goblet of fire, to representthe magical world and compete in a challenge presented by the mundane ministry.

The challenge was a new game that had come out 'Sword Art Online or rather more commonly known as SAO', a virtual reality MMORPG. The wizarding world was to provide 10000 magicals and hope that one of them managed to beat the game before one of the 10000 mundanes did. If the magicals won, the mundanes would admit that the magical world was superior to them. However, if a mundane won then the magicals would have to admit that mundanes were superior. Or at least equals.

Celestia could careless who won, she didn't like that her freedom was being revoked just to settle a pissing match. Had she been asked, and not ordered, she would've been more than happy to play the game. Afterall the Dursley's had never let her play video games before, something she had always wanted to do, especially after reading several game guides that she'd found at the local library. Atleast it was just a game, she would've rebeled if they'd tried to draft her for a war. It was that thought that kept her mostly quiet when St. Mungo's specialists came to take almost the entire school to a specialized facility where they'd be hooked up to the rather advanced machines. Celestia had been told that once inside the game they would not need to logout until the game was over, their bodies would be taken care of through nutrition potions and healers, and that she would be recieving the wages of a Senior Auror until the game was over, as thanks for competeing.

Slightly mollified, Celestia had nodded silently as the healers and specialists rushed around her room to hook her up to the game and a monitor that showed her vital signs. She nearly laughed as ministry representative speaking to her was almost ran over by a rather hefty old nurse who clearly couldn't careless who he was. As an heiress to the Potter, Peverell, and Black family lines, Celestia had been given a rather large private room, which she then requested to have some of her friends be placed in the same room as her, so as to save room of course.

The representative agreed but could only allow her a choice of two of her friends. That was fine. Her best friend, Luna Lovegood, was an heiress herself so she would be in her own room under better care than the two she had in mind.

Hermione Granger, a studious and rather prideful sixteen year old girl in Celestia's year group. She had brown eyes and shoulder blade length bushy brown hair, she stood at 5'6" and had a rather plain figure with little curves to speak of. She was a nice, polite young woman that had learned long ago not to try Celestia's temper by trying to control her like she had in their first year. Celestia hadn't liked being told that she would never amount to much if she didn't study and had almost called an honor duel right then and there in the Great Hall. Luckily for Hermione, Neville, Celestia's male best friend, had put her firmly in her place by telling Hermione that she wouldn't be going very far herself if she tried to alienate an heiress of three old family lines and one of the wealthiest ladies on the continent. He had then further humiliated her by telling her that she needed to brush up on her etiquette and social skills before she found herself facing an honor duel for disrespecting the old lines. Hermione had immediately appologized and while Celestia had forgiven her ignorance the others of old lines had blacklisted her for the rest of the year and that included Neville. Disrespecting the old lines, while not against the law, had been the cause of several blood feuds that had wiped out entire families. It was a very serious matter and she had been lucky that she had only been blacklisted for just that year. She was mundane born though and so could be forgiven her ignorance, but only that once.

Ginny Weasley, a fiery athletic fourteen year old girl in the year below Celestia. She had brown eye's and shoulder length red hair, she stood at 5'4" and had a slight pear shaped figure with the curve of her hips being the more prominent show of curves. Ginny was a very intelligent girl who could probably go into anything she wanted as a career and yet she had a passion for quidditch that rivaled Oliver Woods- Celestia's former quidditch captain.

It took more than an hour to find the girls and then another hour to get the girls all hooked up to both machines. While they waited, the girls decided to go over the SAO game guide that the representative had left for them, having already set up their avatar accounts. Celestia was almost tempted to make her avatar a guy just so she wouldn't have to wear the ridiculous frilly pink skirt. She hated the color pink. Ginny stopped her, having heard her muttering about the color, "There are other colors and designs, Tia." She'd ended up finding a nice dark blue straight dress with black leggings. Not perfect but still her style. It was a short sleeve dress and just loose enough that she wouldn't be broadcasting her own hourglass figure, nope just her rather large breasts. Not much she could do about that though she'd been trying since she was twelve.

"You know this would be a good chance for you to meet some people who don't know that you're a celebrity or an heiress to three large estates." Hermione stated idly, as she continued looking through the guide, a small barely noticable smirk on her face.

Ginny snickered, "Actually this would be the perfect time to _**experiment**_ without sacrificing your body or virginity."

Hermione gasped, half in indignation and half at the realization. A slow smile spread across Celestia's face. It was an intriguing idea and gave her a sense of freedom and curiousity. Witches couldn't really experiment with their bodies like the wizards could. When a wizard lost his virginity there weren't any consequences but when a witch lost her virginity outside of marriage they became a social outcast and if her magic found her partner incompatable it could also destablise their magic until she found someone suitable to settle down with. A witch with unstable magic could sometimes fall to insanity. Celestia had always thought it was incredibly unfair and had been envious of mundane women who didn't have that problem. Still she did have standards. Not just anyone would put his hands on her temple of a body no matter how much she wanted to experiment and that included women.

Giggling had caught her attention and looking up, Celestia blushed as her vitals on the machine started giving her away and if that hadn't done it, the fact that she had started fanning herself would've. She grinned sheepishly, before clearing her throat, "Well, the idea is interesting but I do have standards."

"Of course, of course!" The two giggled harder, teasing her.

Just as they began to open their mouths to interrogate her on said standards an alarm rang and Celestia eagerly grabbed the NerveGear helmet, put it on her head and a moment later said, "Link...Start!"

Talk about saved by the bell.

A blur of colors rushed past her and she found herself at the login screen, entering her information, she felt a slight tingle as her cyber body appeared in the central plaza of the Town of Beginnings on the 1st Floor of Aincrad, a 'Welcome to Sword Art Online' sign flashed over her head.

Read and Review Let me know what you think! Be Nice about it though.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Celestia, or Tia as was her avatars name, grimanced as the two girls, Geneva and Mione, caught up with her at the weapons shop. Every PC or player character started out at level 0 with an HP of 150, all their STATs at 3, 1000 Col (which was the substitute for money in Aincrad), and 1 sword skill. However for a magical to play the game after entering SAO for the first time, their magic needed to be drained into either their skill points (SP), their perk points (PKP), or their col, to be able to play safely. Not entirely fair to the mundanes but considering this was a game without magic in the first place and most magicals have lived their entire lives surrounded by magic, well Tia was going to call it even.

As it was Tia had converted her magic into PKP, because it was more difficult to earn than Col or SP. In fact PKP could only be earned as a level up reward, an event reward, or you could buy a PKP for 2000 Col, that's how rare it was. Tia had ended up with 7525 PKPs which had surprised the hell out of her but then she had sold 5 PKPs in exchange for 10000 Col. Hopefully she could find a decent sword which is what she was trying to do now. She was in one of the more expensive weaponry shops and by that she meant their prices went up to 2000 Col. She'd still have 10000 Col if she managed to find anything but she also needed armor and maybe a jacket to hide her bust size if the leers she had been getting were anything to go by.

She did end up getting a lightweight sword that was meant to be good for agility fighters, it gave her +5 to her agility and she'd be able to upgrade her sword ten times and each upgrade would give her +2 to her agility. She payed the necessary 2000 Col and then immediately equiped it to the left side of her waist, scabberd and all. She took another look around the weapon shop and found a set of ten throwing picks used mainly for hunting, shrugging she bought those as well only 100 Col, once thrown they lost their durability and dispersed, so she would need to buy more once she was out. Equiping those to the back of the brown leather belt her sword was strapped to, Tia frowned, she needed a darker colored belt, the one she was wearing looked tacky against her darker clothes.

Tia was so deep in thought she hadn't realized she had left the girls back at the weapons shop. Entering the armory, Tia browsed for something that would be useful as both fashionable and functional. It took her a while to find something and it wasn't even her that had found it. Geneva had found it for her and had made her appologize for leaving them behind before she would show her what it was. It turned out to be a black leather waist cincher with what looked like garters strapped to it. It certainly was fashionable and since it came with an extended weight limit as well as doing everything her current belt did, Tia was more than happy to buy it and replace her leather belt with it, even if it cost her 3000 Col to do so. It was odd to be wearing something that could be seen as a sex symbol if it was lace and not leather, over her dark blue dress, thankfully the leather garters extended passed the dress and wrapped around her lower thighs. She would be putting her medicine pouch on her right thigh when she got them. She still needed a jacket first, the stares were even worse than before.

Mione snickered as she tossed a mens black bomber jacket at her face, at least the jacket had +3 on defense and still fit her just enough to take the focus off her large bust and her small waist that flared out into a huge butt, or at least that's what the waist cincher made it look like. She quickly bought the jacket and equiped it to the amusement of several slightly envious women. Tia was aware that she had a body more than a few women would kill to have, especially at the age of fifteen, but more often than not it got her into some pretty sticky situations that she had been extremely lucky to get out of. Well, extremely lucky, powerful and wealthy, not many would dare to risk a blood feud against her three lines as well as her many allies.

She hadn't even looked at the price so she was pleasantly surprised to find that she still had 6000 Col left. Looking at the time, Tia was amazed to see that it was already 3:20pm. They'd been here for 2 hours and 20 minutes. The other two weren't nearly as picky as Tia was, though that was mainly because Tia had never been able to have nice things when she had been with the Dursley's, so when she was finally free from them she decided that she wouldn't care how much money she spent on herself so long as she felt comfortable with herself. Sirius had been more than happy to spend the Black's vast fortune on whatever his goddaughter and heiress wanted.

The three girls walked over to the medical stall to look over the items. Potions, antidotes, healing crystals, teleport crystals, and various forms of food, littered the stall. The crystals were expensive but usable during battle, to use potions or antidotes you would have to unequip your weapon. Probably why they were only 50 col a piece. She bought ten of each and stored them in her inventory and then bought 2 healing crystals and a teleport crystal, which she put in the medical pouch on her right thigh. These crystals were low level and likely wouldn't be able to restore much more than 1500 hp. The moment she could she was going to stock up on crystals. By the time she left the stall she was left with only 1000 Col. It was a good thing she only needed to make one more stop - the gift shop.

The gift shop was where you could buy perks with your pkps. Perks were very expensive because once bought and activated they stayed activated until the game was over, of course you can deactivate them but you really didn't want to do that for most perks, they're too useful.

Like the Linguist Perk; translates all languages. Costs 1000 pkps. Very useful, especially because some NPCs above the 25 floor spoke different languages, usually those that were quest related, but if you didn't know the language you couldn't do the quest. Tia only knew four languages; english, french, latin, and luckily, japanese. Though french and japanese, she'd learned because of Vernon's business trips.

Another one like the Cash Cow Perk; converts all exp into col. Costs 1000 pkps. Useful in a tight spot when you find yourself desperately needing col.

The one she was going for was called the Deluxe Quick Level Up Perk, it doubles all rewards. Level ups, monster drops, and quests. It cost 4000 pkps, but would be well worth the pkps.

There was another she wanted to get called the Times 2 Perk; it doubles SP and PKP on level ups. Costs 3000 pkps. She had the pkps but she wanted to save them just in case.  
After leaving the gift shop, Mione and Geneva trailing behind her, Tia began searching for a way out of the town to the spawning grounds. From the look of her map she wasn't too far away.

"So Tia, what kind of standards do you have?" Geneva asked idly, looking through her status menu.

Tia blushed, but she knew she wouldn't escape the question forever, so she answered softly, "Someone with a morale code for one, preferably someone intelligent. Someone intense, that's passionate about something so much that they know it inside and out. Someone strong enough to sweep me off my feet without considering me to be a damsel in distress. Someone that won't expect me to always be the strong one."

Mione put her hand on her shoulder, catching Tia's attention, "You won't find a guy like that in the magical world, Tia. Not if they know who you are."

Geneva bounced, cheerfully, "That's why now is the perfect time to look for someone who could reach your standards. Nobody will recognize you and you're going by a nickname."

Tia rolled her eyes, "You forget that we're suppose to be winning a game, Geneva."

She just laughed, "And who said that you can't find that one and only in here while you try to win the game?!"

"Yeah! Multitask, Tia, multitask!" Mione giggled. You wouldn't know it by how she acts IRL but she's a real romance fanatic.

"Alright! I'll think about it. If it happens, it happens though." Tia muttered trying to control her blush.

Suddenly she saw the spawning grounds, squealing in excitement she rushed forward, drawing her sword and running for the closest monster. A blue glow enveloped her sword a moment before she reached the monster and a red line went across the monster before it expanded and then burst into blue pireflies. Pausing in her steps, Tia wondered about the blue glow on her sword before remembering about sword skills, red tinged her cheeks. She had been so excited that she had completely forgotten about how to activate sword skills. She was surprised she'd even managed to kill the boar like monster, but she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. A reward tag floated in front of her waiting for her to accept her reward. With her perk activated, she'd gotten 50 exp, 50 col, and 20 sp. A quick mental calculation told her that she'd need 9 more boar monsters before she could level up. Pressing the accept button Tia moved on to the next monster, idly seeing Mione and Geneva copying her out of the corner of her eyes.

Twenty minutes of killing the same damn boar monsters quickly began to grow boring though even if she got rewards for it. She wanted something more exciting or difficult, but she wasn't about to move up until she killed the required boars to level up. She wasn't getting herself killed just because she was impatient.

Another ten minutes later, she cheered as she leveled up and then pouted as she realized she couldn't open her status menu without placing herself in danger of being attacked by monsters. She'd have to find a safe area to open her menu but she could tell the other two weren't finished yet. She sighed, back to killing boars then.

It took another fifteen minutes before the other two were finished and she had managed to kill another ten boars by then. She only had another 1000 exp to get to level 2. Apparently the other two hadn't got the same perk she had. They had gotten the Linguist Perk and the Times 2 Perk after realizing that they wouldn't be able to speak to a lot of the PCs who's main language was japanese. Tia had snickered at that, thankful that she had been forced to learn at a young age.

Finally able to move on, they followed the dirt trail hoping it would lead to a safe area. Although it seemed that while the grass had the boar monsters, the road had the wolf monsters. The wolf monsters were faster and stronger, and Tia was more than happy to kill them while Geneva and Mione stood back and watched. By the time they had reached a safe area Tia was humming happily, Mione and Geneva were rolling their eyes fondly at Tia's antics, and Tia immediately opened her status menu.

Not two seconds after doing so did she trip over a rock and sent herself flying, somehow managing to throw herself and another PC to the ground. Stunned that she had actually managed to trip in a game, it took a second to realize what had happened.

Lifting herself up a bit, she took in the situation; first, she was in someone's lap; second, that someone was a guy; third, her breasts had struck once again. And by that she meant they'd tried to smother some poor guy. Quickly rolling off said poor guy, she blushed and stammered her appologies as she helped him up. Aware that she was being laughed at by her friends and another guy, her bottom lip trembled, tears filled her eyes, and her shoulders hunched in on herself as she tried to keep the humiliating tears at bay.

"Hey, no problem. It happens to the best of us." The guy she'd almost smothered said, glaring at the laughing trio, before looking down at her and smiling softly, "My names Kirito. What's yours?"

Lips still trembling slightly, she smiled shyly, "I'm Tia. Sorry for running you over like that. I wasn't aware that I could still manage to be a klutz even in a VRMMORPG."

He chuckled softly, "Don't worry about it. What is it that you were trying to do? Maybe I can help you while the laughing trio over there get over themselves?"

Still smiling, Tia agreed and opened her menu again, "I was trying to decide were to put my stat points."

Kirito seemed pleasantly surprised, "Oh you've managed to level up already?!"

She blushed lightly, "Yeah, I've got a perk that doubles all the rewards I get."

"Which helps you to level up twice as fast and doubles your stat points and your pkps. That's the Deluxe Quick Level Up Perk, which costs 4000 pkps. How'd you manage to get the pkps for that? Even the beta testers only got 1000 pkps." Kirito questioned amazed.

Tia was more than happy to focus on a something else, "It's because I'm magical. All magicals need to drain their excess powers off when they first enter the game and the energy has to go somewhere. So all magicals are given a choice of what to convert their magic to, sp, col, or pkp. I chose pkp after reading about the exchange rates in the game guide. I wasn't expecting to get over 7000 pkps."

"Seriously?! That's pretty cool and very smart of you. Not many people bother to actually read the game guides and end up missing crucial information." Kirito smiled, turning his attention to her stats.

"I love reading game guides. My caretakers never let me play video games so I use to read game guides at the local library. Thankfully I no longer live with them. I'd hate to have missed being able to play this game." Tia rambled idly, her thoughts elsewhere.

Kirito hmmed, "How'd you get your agility so high at level 0? I know most of it came from your sword but for it to be so high means you had to have gotten your sword at one of the more expensive weaponry shops?"

"I sold 5 of my pkps for col." Tia answered, "You're a beta tester right?"

"Yeah, why?" He asked turning his attention back to Tia, who quickly asked, "Have you used your pkps yet?"

"No, I was saving them for the same perk that you have."

"Perfect!" Tia chirped, cheerfully opening a trade request tag with Kirito to give him 3000 pkps. It'd still leave her with 920 pkps and that was fine with her. She knew those pkps would come in handy.

"You really don't have to do that, Tia. It was an accident." Kirito said stunned as he saw the trade tag.

"I want to. There's not that many guys out there that'd be decent about the situation. Trust me I would know. You're not the first person I've tripped into." Tia smiled, happily a blush trailing across her cheeks, "You're just the first that's been decent about it."

It was Kirito's turn to blush, he muttered, "If you're sure?"

"Yep!"  
He pressed the accept button.

She grinned, "Now how about we go get that perk? After I figure out where I'm going to put my stat points, of course."

She frowned and he laughed, "You don't need any on your agility so don't bother with that, but speed and accuracy won't do you any good unless your strength matches it, so put 5 in that. You're good on defense so I'd put 2 on vitality, 2 on luck and 1 on charisma. Vitality usually goes into your hp. Luck determines what you get in monster drops and charisma determines what an NPC will give you for completing a quest for them."

She followed his instructions and was pleased when she found that her hp had gone up to 400, "Alright let's get going. Do you want me to take front until we get back to town so you don't level up without the perk?"

Kirito grinned, "Would you mind?"

She laughed, "Course not. I offered, didn't I?"

Turning to head out of the safe zone, she frowned as she realized she'd been so distracted by her conversation with Kirito that she'd forgotten that her friends had laughed at her. Debating whether to bother telling them she was leaving and interrupt their conversation with the guy that had laughed at her, the choice was decided for her by Kirito's mumbled words, "Just leave them for a bit. It'll be their own fault for laughing. We'll be back soon anyways. Let them worry they should have been worried earlier, especially if you've already been taken advantage of once before for the same thing."

She nodded sadly, remembering the last time her body had gotten her in trouble. It had been a year ago when she had still lived with the Dursley's. Dudley and his friends had taken turns groping her and laughing about it. At least until a passing patrol had caught them doing it and had seen her tears. The entire gang had been arrested for sexual harassment and after finding out that Dudley was her cousin, they had launched an investigation into the Dursley family. The Dursley's reputation didn't survive the investigation nor the trial. Vernon was arrested for numerous crimes including child abuse, child molestation, encouraging a minor to sexually harass another minor, and embezzlement. Petunia had been arrested as an accessory to child abuse and child neglect, she swore she hadn't known about anything sexual. Tia believed her, she'd seen the look on her aunts face when she'd been told what her husband and son had done. Apparently hitting her sisters daughter was okay but anything sexual was crossing the line. At least her aunt had some morals however askew they maybe. Petunia had begged forgiveness for not seeing and stopping it. Dudley was in a detention facility for minors and would be until he was eighteen, he had also been labeled as a sex offender when a couple other girls came forward and claimed that he had done the same to them.

"You okay, Tia?" Kirito asked quietly as they walked away from the safe zone, seeming to sense her distracted thoughts.

"Yeah.." She croaked, quietly.

"Need a shoulder to cry on or a good listener?" He asked gently, stepping forward to handle the wolf monster while Tia got her emotions under control.

'How sweet.' Tia thought, smiling lightly at his kindness, she told him about the Dursley's. She told him that her magic was the reason they had done what they did. She told him about how Vernon and Dudley hadn't thought of her as a human being just as a witch that should've been burned at the stake. She told him about how her friends and other women were always telling her that she had a body most women would die for and she should be proud of it. She told him about how scared her body made her feel sometimes, especially around men who openly leered at her.

When she finally stopped talking, she was relieved to find his face clear of judgment and pity. Feeling better now that she'd gotten that off her mind she stepped forward to cover him, feeling a little embarrassed that he had to protect her for most of the journey back to town. He hadn't seemed to mind so that was good. He was quiet and very thoughtful during the trip to and through the city. It wasn't until they were heading back to their friends that he spoke again.

He told her that he used to train in kendo before he'd found a love for computers. He told her about how, in his confusion and hurt, he'd distanced himself from his aunt and cousin after finding out that he was adopted. He told her how angry and hurt he'd been to find out that the woman he'd called mother was actually his aunt and that his younger sister was actually his cousin. He told her that he felt as if they had disrespected his deceased parents by not telling him and that by doing so they robbed him of the chance to show his respect and grieve for his real parents. He told her that when he gave up his kendo training to focus on computers and robotics, that his grandfather had been so angry that he had beat him until his cousin had stopped him and told their grandfather that she would train for the both of them. He told her of the guilt he had felt for putting his younger cousin in that situation, and of how ashamed he was for still being hurt and angry with his aunt and cousin.

Tia listened patiently, barely putting any thought to the boar and wolf monsters she and Kirito killed as they made their way back to the safe zone. Idly noting that they had both leveled up (her once and him twice), she quietly told him that she understood his anger and hurt over the unspoken lies. She told him that it was his right to be angry with his aunt and even his grandfather but she gently reminded him that his younger cousin probably didn't know either.

Hoping that Kirito didn't take offense to her gentle reprimand, she found him smiling at her and realized that he probably hadn't thought of that. She continued by saying that paranoia was a natural reaction to a betrayal of that magnitude and that sometimes it takes an outsider to help you believe that the world wasn't out to get you.

He'd chuckled and threw her own words back at her in different context; sometimes it took a decent person to help you realize that not everybody saw just the body; beatiful though it was, the mind and heart could be just as beautiful if not even more so.

She was embarrassed that his words had made her shed a few tears and as she wiped them away, she jokingly called him a smooth talker. And then she'd quietly thanked him as he passed her to kill a wolf monster.

Read and Review Let me know what you think! Be Nice about it though.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

As they reached the safe zone, Tia and Kirito both opened their status menus eager to see what had changed. Somehow Tia managed to trip over the same damn rock but thankfully she only stumbled into Kirito's side and they both decided it was a good idea to sit down while they went over their menus. After distributing their stat points, Tia sent Kirito a friend request that was immediately accepted and then she had to accept a party invite from Kirito.

With her back to Kirito's, Tia joked quietly that it only took their life stories and getting to second base to consider each other friends. His shoulders shook against her head as he chuckled. Rolling around to place her head in his lap, she noticed his health bar was in the lower yellow though that probably had something to do with his max hp going up. In fact her own health bar wasn't doing so good either.

Curious, she gently took his right hand and opened his inventory, ignoring his amusement at her bold actions. She rolled her eyes when she found he didn't have any potions or crystals. Releasing his hand, she opened her own inventory and this time instead of opening a trade tag, she sent half of her potions, antidotes, and her spare healing crystal to Kirito, as a gift, in an email. Snickering cheekily, she watched him huff in exasperation. Before adding each other as friends they could only trade with each other and trades could be denied but once a gift was given in an email it couldn't be returned for a full 24 hours.

She tapped on one of her remaining potions, tapped the use button and then watched fascinated as it materialized in front of her. Catching the small bottle, she smirked up at Kirito, "And they say SAO doesn't have magic. We call that conjuration."

Kirito laughed lightly, materializing his own potion, he said, "Cheers!" and then knocked it back, the empty bottle bursting into blue sparkles. Tia copied him with her own potion and then relaxed in Kirito's lap, not even caring when Geneva and her new friend came over to talk to them. Mione apparently, received a friend request from a 'Weasley' and went to go meet up with him, him being Ron. Tia still didn't understand that friendship and she didn't think she wanted to.  
Geneva's new friend, who Kirito was kind enough to introduce as Klein, had appologized for upsetting Tia earlier, but assured her that he'd been laughing at Kirito and not her. She'd nodded and went back to relaxing ignoring the conversation until she heard Kirito's worried voice asking her to check for her log out button. A few quick hand motions later had her sitting up in concern, "It's not there."

"Do you know if there's another way to log out of this thing?" Klein asked nervously.

After a moment of thought, Kirito answered suddenly deathly serious, "No. Whenever a player wants to log out of SAO the only way to do it is by going through the menu."

"That can't be right! There's got to be some way out! Return! Log Out! Escape!" Klein started shouting and by the time he was finished he was jumping all over the place. If Kirito didn't look so serious, Tia would've probably laughed at the guys antics.

"Told you so. And there was no emergency log out in the manual either." Kirito continued after the man stopped jumping around like a lunatic.

"No way. You gotta be kidding..I know I'll just rip the NerveGear off my head!" Klein proceeded to try and do exactly that.

"Don't bother. Once you're hooked in you can't move your body in the real world anymore. The NerveGear intercepts all the commands you give inside the game using an interface that's built into the rig. "

"Seriously." Klein deadpanned, "So now we gotta wait until someone gets around to fixing the bug?"

Kirito nodded, "That or until someone in the real world comes along and takes the NerveGear off us. That's it."

"I live alone. You?" Klein asked.

"I got a mom and a sister. And I'm pretty sure they'll notice by dinnertime if-" Kirito began saying.

All the sudden, Klein rushed him gushing over Kirito's sister, Geneva seemed a bit annoyed at his actions and looked a bit too cheerful when Kirito kneed Klein in the nuts to get him off and shut him up.

"Get serious. Don't you think this is weird?" Kirito asked annoyed.

"Yeah totally, but it's just a bug." Klein said, unconcerned.

"This isn't just a bug. If we can't log out it's going to cause some serious problems for the game."

"Yeah I guess you're right."

"I wonder if the developers even know what's going on cause they can just shut down the server and log everyone out but why haven't they made an announcement?" Kirito wondered aloud.

As if on que a gong like bell rang out through the game. A familiar feeling of fear began to creep through her and she couldn't help but to edge closer to Kirito.

A tingling sensation and blue sparkles later, Tia found herself still practically wrapped around Kirito except now they were in the plaza of the town of beginnings surrounded by what she would guess to be nearly 20000 people.

"Someone forced a teleport." Kirito muttered.

The bell stopped ringing and a bright red hexagon with a warning sign blinked ominously in the sky and then suddenly the entire sky was red and filled with warning signs.

She held onto Kirito tighter as the red sky seemed to bleed heavily before becoming a giant man who welcomed them to his world, a phrasing that caught both Tia and Kirito's attention. The giant man introduced himself as Akihiko Kayaba and told them that as of this moment he was in control of this world. He then brought everyone's attention to the missing log out button and explained that SAO was designed that way. He told them that there was no longer any way to log out of the game nor could anyone from the outside world take the NerveGear off of their heads without a transmitter located in the NerveGear discharging a microwave signal into their skull, destroying their brain and ending their life.

People in the plaza began to panic but Tia's attention was on Kirito, who had just confirmed that the transmitter worked just like a microwave. Turn off the safety and it could fry their brain.

The giant red man explained that despite his warning friends and family had attempted to remove the NerveGear and because of those actions 213 players had been deleted from the game and the real world. Then they were told that players could no longer be revived in the game, if their hp reaches 0 they will be deleted from the game and in real life forever. The only way to leave the game would be to beat the game. He then told them that he had left a gift in everyones inventory and asked them to check it out.

Everyone moved to do so, even Tia, none were expecting to find a mirror. Nor were they expecting to suddenly be forced back into their own body instead of the artificial copy of their body. Tia was annoyed to find her body growing more defined, her skin paling, her eyes brightening to an emerald green and her lips becoming a blood red color. Her hair was pure black and fell in waves down to her hips.

Looking to her left where Kirito had been she found herself staring at a rather handsome boy with slightly long but neat black hair and expressive black eyes, who stood half a foot taller than her own 5'2".

To her right she found that Klein hadn't really changed much, his former pink long spiky hair had changed to a short spiky bright red hair, he still had brown eyes and he still had a scruffy chin.

After that Akihiko Kayaba told them that he wanted to control the fate of a world of his own design. In other words he wanted to play god with 20000 peoples lives. Akihiko Kayaba disappeared and so did the red sky and the barrier keeping them trapped in the plaza.

The moment the barrier came down Kirito grabbed Tia and Klein, who grabbed Geneva and stealthily raced for the shortcut to the gates. They were blocked at the alley shortcut by a familiar face. At least familiar to Tia and Geneva.

Relieved to see her, Tia jumped into Luna's arms or rather Lulu's arms, "I'm so happy to see you, Lulu!"

The spacey pixie like blonde smiled, "Likewise Celestia. I come with gifts to help you and yours protect those you claim."

Tia looked at her sadly, "You saw this happening didn't you, Lulu?"

She nodded, "No matter what I did to try to change it, it still happened. This will be up to you and yours to beat this game. I can't see anymore Tia. I only saw enough to determine that you and yours are necessary and that you'd need me to sacrifice my sight to do what is needed."

Tia looked at her in horror her hands trembling as she raised them to frame her best friends eyes. Lulu grabbed her hands firmly, "We don't have time for you to have a breakdown Celestia. Woman up! Check your messages. I've sent you and yours gifts. I've done what I can now it's up to you and yours. Last minute suggestions; you don't have to always be together to be a guild, follow your instincts, and keep as many friends as possible close until they no longer need it. I'll follow you until I can go no further Celestia."

Taking a quick breath, Tia tossed all doubts to the back of her mind and looked through her messages easily finding Lulu's gifts. There was two of them, one of them labeled for Kirito this one she sent to Kirito without bothering to open it, the other she did open to find four expensive perks.

The Times 2 Perk - doubles sp and pkp on level up. Combining this perk with the one she had already would quadruple her sp and pkp.

The Grinding Perk - adds +1 stat point to all stats with each level up. Enough said.

The ChaChing Perk - Triples all col rewards. Very expensive perk but very worth the pkps.

And The Quick Level Up Perk - Forces you to advance 3 levels and can only be used once.

Tia whistled, very impressed, especially as she was sure that Kirito had received the same, "Well done, Lulu!"

She shifted her attention to Kirito and Klein. Obvously Kirito hadn't noticed the message she'd forwarded, "Kirito and I will meet you and your friends at the safe zone we were at today. Be quick. Message them and light a fire under their ass. We'll wait only two hours. If you can't make it message us. Now move it. Geneva go with him. Report anything new."

Klein and Geneva ran back to the plaza.

Tia grabbed Kirito's hand and ran for the medical shop, Lulu followed quietly. Kirito questioned Tia in a low voice trying not to attract attention to them, "What are we doing, Tia? We need to get to the next town. We're not strong enough to protect so many people."

She nodded, "Not yet but we will be. Check your messages, Kirito. And keep an eye out for incoming messages. We need more medical equipment. As well as the camping skill and the night vision skill. 400 sp altogether. And you need the extended weight limit skill, Kirito. "

Tia's hands rushed over her status window. She sold 20 pkps for 40000 col and then immediately bought 20 rolls of bread, 16 potions, 15 antidotes, 10 healing crystals, and then 5 teleport crystals. Storing everything in her inventory she still had over 20000 col left but she didn't have time to do anything more than grab the skill manuals for camping and night vision. Within twenty minutes of the barrier falling Kirito, Tia, and Lulu were racing for the safe zone to wait for the others.

Kirito and Tia activated their new perks one by one saving the quick level up perk for last. Taking a deep breath they glanced at each other and nodded determinedly, activating their last perk.

Immediately three level up tags popped up in front of her, acceping all of them she then began distributing 5 stat points on top of the 3 stat points to all 6 stats. Afterwards she sat at an even 2000 for her hp, Kirito was at 1900 though that was because his vitality was lower than hers seeing as she didn't really have to place stat points to her agility because of her sword. He needed better equipment but as he was a beta tester she had no doubt that he was waiting for a certain blade. Still he'd need something that could keep up with him now and a standard sword wouldn't cut it. When they reached the next town she was getting him a better blade until he could get the one he wanted, if he stuck with that one he was going to break it in a few more levels and they couldn't have that in the middle of battle. Esecially as she and Kirito were going to be the groups heavy hitters until the others were up to par.

"Kirito? There were a thousand beta testers right?" She asked, softly.

"Yeah?"

She bit her lower lip, she didn't like what she was about to suggest it would be very dangerous, "Other betas will have the same idea."

He nodded with a frown, "The next town's not going to do it if that's the case."

"Could we make it to the third town with the perks that we have?"

"Yes, we should be able to even with us needing to protect the others. We'll need to set up a camp in a safe zone when we get tired, though."

Lulu spoke up, "This has become a life or death game. People do stupid and dangerous things to stay alive. They steal, kill, sell their bodies, sell their friends. It's going to get real bad, Tia. Not everybody can handle life or death situations, some people will go insane and lash out at others. You'll need to keep your friends close, create a guild if you need to, but when you need to sleep have others on watch. Guild members help and protect each other."

Kirito looked uncertain, "Guilds can't be created until the fifth floor and I don't relate to other people very well."

Lulu shook her head, "Things like that no longer matter, Kirito. The only things that are going to matter are who's stronger and who has the most and best resources. The more members you have the more protected you are. Smart thieves and murderers will avoid large groups. That's the type of protection you'll need."

Tia nodded, "She's right, Kirito. Guilds don't always have to travel together but just being a member of a guild that has a reputation for protecting their own will provide protection from petty thieves, murderers and ambushers. Besides small parties and solo players can only go so far in a death game like this."

Kirito sighed, "Alright, we'll create our own guild but we've got until the fifth floor to think of a name and decide on the rules. Membership requirements, leveling requirements where the headquarters is going to be; that type of thing. Let's get back to what we're going to do right now. With other betas out there the second town is no longer an option and pretty soon the third town won't be an option either."

"Alright then how about we only go into towns for necessities? We just keep moving from one town to the next until we get to the end. No one is going to go for the dungeons until they level up so if we continue on to the last town we'll be safe for awhile right?" Tia asked Kirito.

He nodded, "Sounds good. We'll head for the third town tonight with Geneva and Klein's friends. We'll stay there for a day or two, while everyone gets in touch with their friends and families, and if need be we'll send rescue parties to meet up with those stranded in lower level towns. If we manage to earn enough col by the time we get to the last town we should be able to buy out one of the many inns there and make that a temporary headquarters."

Tia grinned, "If we're going to set ourselves up as the strongest guild we're going to have to help others get the perks needed to level up quickly. Lulu are you in need of perks?"

She shook her head and explained, "Seer abilities are extremely rare so sacrificing the ability for pkps earned me nearly 80000 pkps. That's on top of my own magic after taking an exta strength potion before logging in, which earned me 15000 pkps. I still have 35000 pkps left for the use of my guildleaders."

Tia and Kirito stared at her in disbelief, Tia asked, shakily, "Lulu, why would give up so much?"

She cocked her head, "It's the right thing to do. Like when you stood up to my tormentors when we were eleven. I know about the beatings you suffered on my behalf, Celestia. My loyalty will always belong to you and yours."

Before she could stop it, a sob fell from Tia's lips. Lulu said it like it was obvious as if such loyalty was to be expected. Kirito wrapped his arms around Tia and she sobbed into his chest desperately trying to calm herself.

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